Staff Essentials

General Information

Diet and nutrition

A healthy, balanced diet has many benefits for both physical and mental health and general wellbeing. This section contains some advice on how to achieve and maintain a healthy diet with the Occupational Health Waist Watchers campaign and the work that Catering Services do to provide responsibly sourced, healthy foods on sale in the food outlets across campus.

Mini Health MOT

The Occupational Health Service offers these appointments throughout the year for staff. The appointment consists of 30 minutes with one of our Occupational Health nurses. The primary aim is to look for early signs or indicators of heart disease and diabetes and will involve height, weight and waist measurements, blood pressure/pulse and urinalysis (all tests/measurements are completely optional).

Appropriate advice can then be given on weight loss, alcohol intake and smoking cessation. Signposting to other organisations or referral to a GP may be indicated with appropriate nurse follow up where necessary.

General tips and pointers for improving health and lifestyle can also be discussed, such as mechanisms for dealing with pressure and stress, work-life balance, sleep, resilience and assertiveness.

Eating at the University

There is a diverse range of catering outlets around the University. To find out which one is the most conveniently placed for you, visit the Catering Services pages.

Catering Services is introducing a new sticker system in campus coffee shops which highlight the types of food available there, from wheat-free and halal certificated products to healthy heart options and ethically sourced produce (Fairtrade, Marine Stewardship Council Approved, Compassion in World Farming etc).